Shruti Parekh’s short film Blood Moon, premiering at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, depicts the anxieties of a young teenager who encounters her first period. It’s a short film that I am sure that every South Asian girl would find relatable. In South Asian households and cultures, periods are taboo. Teenage girls who are menstruating will be kept in a separate room from the rest of the family. In some cases, young teenagers are discouraged from participating in sports activities. Blood Moon explores not being prepared for something life-changing and how a teenager can wonder why it is happening to her.
Maya (Megh Basu) and friend Luz (Amber Romero) prepare to go to their first high school party when Maya starts her first period. At the health counsellor’s office, the nurse calls her mother, Aisha (Deepti Gupta). When Aisha picks Maya up from school, Aisha tries to help her situation but it makes Maya, who is already sensitive, more upset. Back home, Aisha advises Maya to not go to the party. This was the last straw for Maya — who goes with Luz anyways.
Periods can be hard on a young teenager, especially on someone who does not know how to navigate that part of their new life. Parekh captures the complicated feelings of a teenager dealing with her first encounter with periods. As the title is named Blood Moon, perhaps Maya’s period starting on a rare lunar eclipse is meant to symbolise that she is about to learn from her experience and nourish it. She faces her new reality, navigating and embracing it as she becomes a new woman.
Gupta and Basu’s chemistry as the mother and daughter duo is perfectly written and performed. Basu’s character pours her frustrations out at Gupta’s character, while Gupta plays a caring yet stern mother who worries about what her daughter will do next. It’s an invigorating perspective of South Asian characters who are usually stereotyped in Hollywood films. The tale of a young South Asian teenager learning and navigating her new life is not something that is usually seen in Bollywood films, and Blood Moon explores it truly and honestly.
Parekh’s Blood Moon is refreshing and it touched my heart. Not just because of the taboos behind menstruation, because I know, and many other girls at that age know, that it’s confusing. It’s hard to experience new things when our parents and counsellors instill shame in us at a young age, but that is not the case with this short film. In many South Asian cultures, there is a stigma around discussing menstruation, and in the case of Bollywood, it’s just begun to write about taboo subjects such as periods. Blood Moon presents acceptance and removes the stigma around periods. It explores the journey of a young teenage girl who finally accepts that her life is going to change now, not in a negative way but a more positive light.
